Live Well: Savasana posture can be a taste of heaven
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- Created on Friday, 02 July 2010 22:02
- Written by Nathan
By JEN MULSON, THE GAZETTE
Sometimes people come to yoga class for one single posture.
It’s the icing on the proverbial cake, the last drop of honey off your spoon, the means to your ends.
Savasana.
Also known as the final relaxation or, more matter-of-factly, corpse pose.
If I ask what people want to work on in class, it never fails. Somebody always says, “Savasana. For an hour.”
That speaks volumes to me about the way of our lives. We show up for a 60-minute class and request one posture, and that posture can be instructed very simply: Lie down on your back with your legs extended and arms down by your sides. Relax all the muscles of your body so that your feet fall open and the palms of your hands face up. Shut your eyes. Be quiet. Be still.
Slip away from the chaos, perhaps sliding a pillow or cushion under your knees and even arranging a weighted eye pillow across your peepers. Allow your mind to be crazy for a few minutes and then notice as it inevitably slows down.
The key here is to not fall asleep. The objective of savasana is deep rest, not deep sleep. But if you do find yourself in a flurry of mini-dreams or suddenly waking up with drool running down your jaw, so be it. Enjoy, and try again.
On the other hand, this might be the hardest posture of all for some. For others, it is clearly a delicious few minutes. Peace envelops them. Others struggle to not move. They fidget, scratch, whisper to a friend and lift their heads for a quick peek around the room.
In all honesty, when I first attended my gym’s yoga classes, I was that person, but even more so. I couldn’t be bothered to stick around for savasana.
Quiet as a lotus flower blooming up from the mud, I leaped up, rolled up my mat and exited stage left, keeping my head bowed down so I wouldn’t make eye contact with the teacher on my way out. “Savasana,” I would think, “whatever. Who needs that boring old pose? I’m burning zero calories in that pointless, prone position.”
I have seen the light. Now I am almost always the last person to leave the studio after class. I milk my savasana for all it’s worth and then fantasize about the next one. If there weren’t students rolling in for the next class and that whole life thing to get on with, I’d still be lying there now.
It is said that savasana is the posture where the body really absorbs the work of your practice. I believe the postures have a magic to them all their own, and can burrow deep into your bones and brain. Over time, they can change the hardwired circuits in your brain, those circuits that bring you the same messages and thoughts day in and day out. Those harmful patterns of thought can morph into healthier ones.
It is no mystery to me that people naturally ask for savasana. It is also no mystery to me that people rebel against it. It’s a challenge for us all to be still and, more than that, to accept that it is perfectly OK and wonderful to not do anything for a while.
If your response to “How are you?” is always about how busy you are, take a break. Dip into the well of this posture. Don’t feel like you have to do a whole class or sequence beforehand. If you can, all the better, but if not, just flop on down and get cozy.
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Jennifer Mulson teaches vinyasa yoga at Corepower Yoga and Gold’s Gym in Colorado Springs
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